Sports offer education scholarships

A football association out to enhance education through sports has embarked on identifying students who are below 20 years old to study abroad under a special scholarship programme.
According to the Kenya Association of Football Coaches chairman, Mr. John Oyugi, the students to be picked are to pursue their studies in various universities.
Oyugi who is also Director of coaching and players development said the association had to date enabled students from several secondary schools in Western Region (Vihiga, Trans-Nzoia, Kakamega, Bungoma and Busia Counties).
He said that those in universities were also eligible so long as they were not aged above 20 years noting that the association has for the last 20 years picked students from the entire country under the programme.
Oyugi who was speaking at St. Peters high School where the identification exercise was being conducted explained that those picked studied courses of their choice.
He named various students from respective high schools in the country who were pursuing engineering and other courses in America.
The school’s principal, Cosmas Nabongolo, called for best practice in the training of sports teachers in secondary schools in the region.
Nabongolo noted that the teachers applied sports’ knowledge and skills acquired at the time they were at college and many of them had not improved on the same. This, he said, made their coaching skills wanting.
The principal contended that refresher courses for such teachers would come in handy.
He also observed that pitches for sports should be developed and increased in schools whose student population had bulged in the past years.
Nabongolo noted that in some cases the number had either tripled or quadrupled thereby outstripping the facilities available.
By Bantaleo Muhindi